Our view: Rights discussion won't be merely academic

It should be one of many days when minds, hearts and history books are open. It should be a day when people examine their assumptions and make commitments.

"It is one thing to agree that the goal of integration is morally and legally right; it is another thing to commit oneself positively and actively to the ideal of integration  the former is intellectual assent, the latter is actual belief. These are days that demand practices to match professions. This is no day to pay lip service to integration, we must pay life service to it."

 The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,

born Jan. 15, 1929

killed April 4, 1968

quoted in "The Words of Martin Luther King Jr.

Selected by Coretta Scott King,"

Newmarket Press, 1983

Todays federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. should not merely be a day when post offices are closed.

It should be one of many days when minds, hearts and history books are open. It should be a day when people examine their assumptions and make commitments.

Heres one reason for that: The topic of rights will be on the front burner in Michigan in coming months. It wont be merely an academic discussion.

There most likely will be a statewide vote in November 2006.

Thats because a group seeks to ban preferences in university admissions and government hiring based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin or sex. And the group  the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Group  got a record number of signatures on petitions to change the state constitution.

The Associated Press reported that MCRIG leaders said they are not seeking a ban on all affirmative action programs. A spokesman for an opposition group, Citizens for a United Michigan, called MCRIGs campaign deceitful.

President George W. Bushs proclamation of the King federal holiday last year said "all Americans benefit from Dr. Kings work and his legacy of courage, dignity, and moral clarity. … He dreamed of an America where all citizens would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. He dreamed of an America where all would enjoy the riches of freedom and the security of justice. He dreamed of an America where the doors of opportunity would be open to all of Gods children."

The president added that "Dr. Kings leadership moved Americans to examine our hearts  to reject what he called the tranquilizing drug of gradualism on the path to racial justice  and to live up to the ideals of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. America has come far in realizing Dr. Kings dream, but there is still work to be done. In remembering Dr. Kings vision and life of service, we renew our commitment to guaranteeing the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans."

Well said.

In the Michigan controversy about university admissions and government hiring, we should agree on this: Leading up to the vote, discussion and debate should be respectful and based on facts and principles. Before and after the vote, there must be no violence.

Here are two of the places information can be sought from opposite sides of the preferences issue: